Midday Matinee – Go Girl Scouts!

Midday Matinee is our people watching, people doing and people being feature. Join the Woodland Creatures for an afternoon break.

I was a Brownie and a Girl Scout. I was with the same group of girls from 2nd grade to 11th grade. It was one of two all female experiences I had during those years and even looking back with rosy glasses, it was great. (The other was competitive synchronized swimming.) I figure the Republican from Indiana is just taking the GOP war on women and extending it to girls. If you want to know all the things State Rep. Bob Morris has to say about the Girl Scouts, you can click on the link. I refuse to add to his ’cause’ by restating them here.

I recently found my old sash with bunches of little round badges in a trunk. What we were being taught was life skills. What we were told was that each girl matters and each girl can be whatever she wants. We learned to support each other. For the 50s and 60s I suppose that might just be radical for feminism had not yet grabbed any national attention. I can remember competing in swim meets and seeing my fellow scouts and my dad (he couldn’t swim at all) sitting in the bleachers and cheering me on. I remember going to events where other members of my troop were competing in gymnastics or dance lines.

I was introduced to camping and wilderness canoeing through the Scouts and both remain passions to this day. I introduced both to my sons and they also came to love them. The equipment has changed for the better but the wilderness still sings a song that touches my heart. Thank you, Girl Scouts.

Was scouting perfect? Nope. I remember being at a city wide camp. Older girls from “the city” were trying to share beauty tips. Somehow they had confused plucking one’s eyebrows with plucking one’s eyelashes. The lower lashes on my right eye still have a gap from this ‘beauty tip.’ After removing two lashes I distinctly remember saying, “This cannot be right.”

That is the only ‘scar’ physical or psychological that I have from Scouting. Eyelashes do not grow back in case you are ever on Jeopardy and that is the question.

I am disgusted with Bob Morris and anyone else who tries to use the Girl Scouts as part of their culture wars. The Girl Scouts? Really? As a result of this latest brouhaha, I checked out the Girl Scouts web site. They are still doing good things. This year they are 100 years old. Happy Birthday Girl Scouts.

After controversial remarks by one Republican lawmaker attacking Girl Scouts as a radical group that supports abortion, House Speaker Brian Bosma made his feelings clear Tuesday, one Thin Mint cookie at a time.

Bosma, also a Republican, pointedly offered Girl Scout cookies throughout the day and munched them as he presided over the House.
[…]
At one point Tuesday, [Bosma] told House colleagues he had “purchased 278 cases of Girl Scout cookies in the last 48 hours.”

And when time came for the House to adjourn, he asked all lawmakers who had been Girl Scouts — and seemingly every female legislator stood — to give the daily motion to adjourn.

As he left the House, Bosma was dismissive of the controversy: “I’ve been to the carnival before, and you don’t walk in to every sideshow tent.”

addisnana

Thanks for that Crissie. I thoroughly enjoyed my time as a Girl Scout and felt a need to defend this wonderful organization.

NCrissieB

I doubt Speaker Bosma and I would agree on most issues – although I might be surprised – but I appreciate how he handled this one. Some Republicans at least recognize that there is a cliff edge….

winterbanyan

Thank you, Speaker Bosma. 😀

Girl Scouts is a wonderful organization. Your experience of it may vary according to your troop and troop leader (my leader may as well have been Donna Reed) but it was still an empowering experience. I learned things there I never would have learned elsewhere.

winterbanyan

Thanks for your defense of the Girl Scouts, addisnana. Frankly I find that politician’s view not only repugnant, but unAmerican.

addisnana

In the 50’s and early 60’s, Girl Scouts was an empowerment zone for girls and young women. There weren’t many back then. My troop leader was a combination of Martha Stewart (projects) and Betty Friedan (frustrated with her role).